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Bears and Baiting Electric Fence

Hi All,

I'm new and yesterday a bear hit my hive...looks like I might be ok, but now I'm needing some help on my baiting the electric fence. I have done some searching and people indicate to leave some bacon on the wire so that the bear gets hit in the mouth. How long do I need to keep the bacon on the wire? How often does it need replacing if it should stay there? I had my 2 hives inside a 6 foot poly mesh wire to keep out the deer, but the bear tore through it. I do have a steel deer fence around my orchard, which is 10 feet away...should I move my hives over into the orchard? Will that short of a move confuse the bees? Any help would be great.

Baiting the fence is a good thing but you need to go a Little further...depending on your soil, I would use three ground rods. I would also lay a two foot section of chicken wire around your yard just outside the wire, then attach to your ground system at your fencer. This will give her a big surprise. I have been dealing with a mom and three cubs. Lets just say she has been introduced but will sit within 50 feet looking at the bees....

We have lots of bears in our area. A good idea if your ground is dry to use two or three 8ft ground rods. Next is make sure your fence has enough juice. Its the joules that matter. Make sure your system puts out 2.5 or better joules. That is enough to give a bear a kick.

Lastly, sad to say but if the bear got though your fence then it will most likely be back. I usually don't bait my fences, but in your case it may be a good idea to get him to get a zing since he is going to go after it anyway.

Bacon can work very wel but after a day or so i always had the birds steal it so it might not be a bad idea to try strips of rag dipped in peanut butter in between the bacon. it stays better and the bears really need to mouth it for awhile to get the stuff off giving it more time to get shown the way back home

Bacon can work very wel but after a day or so i always had the birds steal it so it might not be a bad idea to try strips of rag dipped in peanut butter in between the bacon. it stays better and the bears really need to mouth it for awhile to get the stuff off giving it more time to get shown the way back home

-jeff

I agree with the peanutbutter only I would take a piece of hardware cloth about 8 " by 3 " bend it double across the width of it and coat it with peanutbutter and hang it on the electric fence.

Then go to a nearby tree and mount a game camera. You might get some good pictures to put on the picture forum

Thanks for all the suggestions... I'm keeping an eye on the fence and I have put chicken wire on the ground as well. I have a Zareba Yellow Jacket that is rated at 0.28 J and my fence is about 60 ft long with 4 wires = 240 feet total will this do the trick? it gave me one good shock

I know many Beekeepers bait their fences, but I would check the laws with the game warden. In PA it is against the law leave bait for bears.

I'd rather save bacon fat for the birds in PA! My method for delivery would be to wire bacon impregnated t-shirt strips on my electric fence for those birds! This way they have a perch to stand on while they feed and fatten up prior to the harsh winter!

I use cans of sardines wired to the hot wire and cracked open about 1/4 inch. I like to put some on the fence when the yard is empty and leave the power off until I find the empty cans ripped of the fence. Then I turn the power on for a week or so before I move the bees in. Since we have multiple bears in our area this gives them all a chance to taste the shock before they are tempted to go through it. I also use either stock panels hung on insulators or grounded field fencing with the hot wire held away from it by insulators so they can't get part way through the fence before they feel it. If their head is already past the wires and the get shocked they will sometimes just lunge forward. It's a real problem to find a bear in your beeyard that is afraid to go back out becaus of the electric fence. This is especially true is the charger is mounted on the fence and you have to get that close to turn it off.